The Victor Blue Devils boys basketball team couldn’t have picked a better time of the season to turn the page. For most of this winter’s Monroe County boys basketball season the Blue Devils had had a hard time getting their team running on all eight cylinders at the same time. At one time or another the team would show flashes of brilliance in just about every aspect of their game. Only every once in awhile did the team manage to play all of those aspects to near perfection at the same time.
Turning that page on their recently concluded regular season, the Blue Devils have now put it all together in their last two post-season games; a brilliant 61-47 Class AA2 quarterfinal win as the number six seed over third-seeded Spencerport last Friday, and Tuesday night’s 49-32 semi-final win over second-seeded Greece-Athena at Gates-Chili High School.
“It’s unbelievable in there right now,” said grinning Victor senior T.J. DiSanto shortly after the team’s dominant win over the Trojans Tuesday night. “You walk into that locker room and everybody is singing and dancing and yelling. The excitement level is over the top in there. It’s unbelievable.”
Both Victor and Athena started out slow, with the under-dog Blue Devils playing to a 10-4 first quarter lead that ballooned to a 24-10 half-time lead and then into a 41-22 third-quarter lead. With 2:34 left in the game and his team down 47-28, Athena coach Jim Johnson started filtering his bench into the game.
DiSanto, leading his team at the point most of the evening, registered 10 points and multiple assists while his fellow senior-captain teammates; Mitch Ford and John Maloney, each scored 18 and 10 points respectively. Another strong contribution in Tuesday’s game came from Victor junior Cash Bleier who pulled down 10 key rebounds. Maloney and Ford added eight rebounds each.
Senior Jordan Vacca led the Trojans, who finish 11-9 on the season, with eight points while freshman teammate Jay Sarkis added six.
For Victor coach Frank Clark, part of the successful equation to his team’s post-season turn-around comes from short-term memory-loss. Or perhaps selective memory.
“That season is done,” Clark likes to say when talking of the Blue Devils recently completed regular season that wrought a 6-12 record. “We are saying that right now we start a-new. Right now we are 2-0. If you were to come to one of our practices you would think that we are undefeated. The things that these kids are doing at practice; hustling, communicating and going all-out. It’s unbelievable how hard they are all working.”
The Victor Blue Devils boys basketball team couldn’t have picked a better time of the season to turn the page. For most of this winter’s Monroe County boys basketball season the Blue Devils had had a hard time getting their team running on all eight cylinders at the same time. At one time or another the team would show flashes of brilliance in just about every aspect of their game. Only every once in awhile did the team manage to play all of those aspects to near perfection at the same time.
Turning that page on their recently concluded regular season, the Blue Devils have now put it all together in their last two post-season games; a brilliant 61-47 Class AA2 quarterfinal win as the number six seed over third-seeded Spencerport last Friday, and Tuesday night’s 49-32 semi-final win over second-seeded Greece-Athena at Gates-Chili High School.
“It’s unbelievable in there right now,” said grinning Victor senior T.J. DiSanto shortly after the team’s dominant win over the Trojans Tuesday night. “You walk into that locker room and everybody is singing and dancing and yelling. The excitement level is over the top in there. It’s unbelievable.”
Both Victor and Athena started out slow, with the under-dog Blue Devils playing to a 10-4 first quarter lead that ballooned to a 24-10 half-time lead and then into a 41-22 third-quarter lead. With 2:34 left in the game and his team down 47-28, Athena coach Jim Johnson started filtering his bench into the game.
DiSanto, leading his team at the point most of the evening, registered 10 points and multiple assists while his fellow senior-captain teammates; Mitch Ford and John Maloney, each scored 18 and 10 points respectively. Another strong contribution in Tuesday’s game came from Victor junior Cash Bleier who pulled down 10 key rebounds. Maloney and Ford added eight rebounds each.
Senior Jordan Vacca led the Trojans, who finish 11-9 on the season, with eight points while freshman teammate Jay Sarkis added six.
For Victor coach Frank Clark, part of the successful equation to his team’s post-season turn-around comes from short-term memory-loss. Or perhaps selective memory.
“That season is done,” Clark likes to say when talking of the Blue Devils recently completed regular season that wrought a 6-12 record. “We are saying that right now we start a-new. Right now we are 2-0. If you were to come to one of our practices you would think that we are undefeated. The things that these kids are doing at practice; hustling, communicating and going all-out. It’s unbelievable how hard they are all working.”
“Tonight I think we were unselfish. So we executed well and moved the ball well. I think these guys are at a point where they don’t care who scores, just as long as we score. I thought we controlled the boards real well. Cash Bleier was a big factor on the boards tonight for us. I don’t remember Athena getting many second rebound chances.”
Ford agreed with his coach, saying that it’s been the teams work ethic at practice of late that has been a big factor.
“Practice. Practice. Practice. Everybody coming together at practice has been big,” says Victor’s baseline maverick. “We are moving the ball way better. Our defense is playing way better. Working on our communication is one of the biggest things that we have been doing. We have been putting a lot of trust into what each other and the coaches have been doing. We just have to stay humble and keep working hard.”
DiSanto, while getting the final word, agreed with Ford.
“We just have to keep doing the same things that we have been doing for the last couple of weeks; Working hard, going 100 percent and getting better. I mean, this is my last season here. I want to win. Make this last season count.”
The Class AA2 championship game will pit the 8-12, 6th-seeded Blue Devils against the 19-1, top-seeded East Orientals. Game time will be 7 p.m. Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.
